Ever heard of Makaton Signing? I’m sure teacher Julie is familiar with it. We all know what sign-language is. Well Makaton is a simplified version. It uses a combination of pictures or symbols and signs from modified Sign Language to express what you want, but like with Sign Language the user is encouraged to mouth the words as they sign. The goal being speech will develop and then the pictures go, until finally the signing is dropped.

I first learnt about Makaton Signing from a newscast. A number of private organisations were offering Makaton Signing for babies and toddlers. In one segment, they showed an 8-month old baby girl “asking” for her hat. They read her a book and she was signing the words for the pictures she saw, like ducks and dogs. It was really amazing. Imagine as parents to babies we don’t really know what they want or feel, but with signs they can “tell” us. I didn’t give it much thought because I’m sure it will be expensive & besides, we talk to our son a lot. That was in 2005.

2006 and my son turned 2 but his speech was very delayed. He was diagnosed with glue ear, which I’ve already blogged about here. One of the speech therapist’s recommendations was the use of Makaton Signing. I couldn’t attend any of the classes and my husband, unfortunately, wasn’t able to keep up either. Thankfully my son’s nursery staff were already being trained on it.

pogiBoy’s speech has improved greatly since then due to a combination of events. It’s just really nice to have this Makaton Signing as backup. Whenever he’s trying to tell us something or he wants to make a point, he’d often sign to us. And because the purpose of Makaton is to make signing simple & easy to understand, the signs are actually what you’d normally expect for the words the person is “looking” for.

When pogiBoy attended a group session in a speech evaluation class, the facilitators were really happy to see him signing. He didn’t need any encouragement, it was second nature.

As staple of his telly-time, I always schedule BBC’s Something Special, so he can learn even more. This show is brilliant. It’s aimed at kids with learning disabilities or infirmities, but toddlers will really enjoy the colours, the pace and activities being shown. Unfortunately sometime back, their main character, Mr Tumble, got in trouble. One time he was supposedly signing for “i’m happy to see you”, apparently he was actually signing “i’m effing you”.

I thought I’d share this with fellow mums. Makaton Signing is easy to learn. Their website offers a lot of handy materials to get you started. Imagine being able to “talk” to your little angels even before they turned 1, that’s really something special.

Hey, this is not a paid post. :-)

This is a sponsored post

With the United Kingdom’s penchant for sports, you are bound to see a number of betting agencies every where. You might even come across two to three betting shops in one street. About two or three years ago, the biggest thing on the internet is online poker which predictably became online casinos where you can indulge in a hobby and earn some serious money, oe yes lose some, too.

Bet365 is one such online casino and is currently looking to get some market exposure for their new addition to their service – a sports betting competition site from around the globe! So it’s not just cricket or rugby, football and races are also on offer. Now that the world of F1 is heating up, you might want to check it out yourself.

Consulting a GP always make me apprehensive. For the 6 years I’ve been in the UK, I have yet to meet a GP that inspires confidence & trust. They’re often aloof, cold, crude, rude, inefficient, arrogant, I can go on for a long time.

Perhaps it’s the area we’ve lived in. I’m no bank manager or actress. Even if I earn better pay than nurses, it doesn’t mean I can live in affluent areas like Chelsea or Surrey. Most often than not, my GPs are very old, some probably just won’t retire. So perhaps their attitude problem & lack of empathy is typical of Filipino public servants’ lack of enthusiasm in their jobs.

Whatever. The bottomline is even if I don’t pay for my consultation, my taxes are feeding them & their families.

Anyway, since April my face have been very dry. I think I tried at least 3 different moisturisers but to no avail. I developed some pimple-like bumps, too, which are sometimes itchy esp. if it’s windy. So the GP gave me Daktakort. Hubby was insisting I ask for a BUPA referral straightaway. I was hesitant as most of the time, our GP doesn’t like giving private referrals & we often end up arguing. It’s really pathetic as we’re entitled to it. Apparently, they’re allowance is deducted for every patient that goes private (I have a side-story on this later).

Anyway, after a month I went back, I wasn’t any better. The symptoms comes & go. You know what the great GP said when I asked him what we should do about my skin? He said “go to a beautician” with a smile that says he’s very pleased with himself.

It took a lot to hold back my karate-chop. I told him to refer me to a BUPA dermatologist. Long story short, I saw the private doctor & he asked about any tests I’ve had. I nearly choked when I controlled my guffawing-reaction. So I am to have 3-sessions for a skin allergy patch test soon to find out what causes my skin to breakout. But he did mention that since I have a history of asthma & I am prone to all sorts allergy, which I already know.

It’s always the case with the GPs that we’ve seen & heard about. They prescribe something without telling the patient what they have or what the meds are for. They rarely do investigative tests for symptoms that they feel are not likely to kill you. I really have had enough of them, but I cannot bypass them to see any specialists – NHS (gov’t) or BUPA (private). So until I earn enough to ditch GPs (which will be never) I have to grin & bear it.

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side story
I have a feeling I already mentioned this in one of my older posts but I’ll repeat it again. My neighbour whose husband is suffering from debilitating arthritis was referred by our GP to see a NHS specialist. This specialist told them the husband needs a critical test done but the NHS waiting list is too long. So his suggestion was he sees them as private patient only for the test (£200+) and then continue with his consultation on NHS. Now the couple returned to our GP to ask for such referral but they were refused (a couple of times). The GP maintains they need to wait on NHS just like everybody else because going on private means they will bump some poor soul from the NHS list. They were gobsmacked. How will they affect the NHS list when the private session will be done on a weekend? Besides they were going to pay for it themselves. So what is the GP’s problem?

Last I heard my neighbour is filing a complaint in NHS. But isn’t unbelievable?